I'm trying to get rid of my cable but still have some option for TV and a friend of mine told me to get a Roku so I can stream Hulu and Netflix accounts on my really old tube television. I am so lost with all of the new streaming technology! Their website says these boxes also have wifi, but will I need a separate provider for internet too?

My mom has one and really likes it! And yeah, you need to connect it to the internet. Do you have a paid Hulu account? If not, you'll have to pay for Hulu in order to stream it. If you want to watch free Hulu, you have to do that on a computer. I have my old lap top connected to the tv so I can watch Hulu, but you can't use a remote, so it's kind of annoying.

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I have a busted up old HP from the dark ages and a work laptop. And I think we tried to hook the laptop up to the tv but the connectors weren't right or some crepe. I forget, but it just didn't work. So if we have the Roku box we would need a hulu account, a netflix account, and an internet provider account. Trying to figure out if all of that would be cheaper than my current cable bill!

Do you think Netflix and Hulu plus pretty much offer the same thing as far as tv shows and movies? Do I really need both?

I have one! It's not the newest model, though. You don't need to have wireless, you can hook up an ethernet cable, if that makes things easier. It's pretty great, and in addition to all the channels provided, there are lots of private channels (I'm watching BBC Olympic coverage from the US! yay!).

If you currently have cable and internet then I think getting a roku player is definitely cheaper. Our internet is about $60/month and cable tv is $50. Netflix is $7.99/month and hulu is the same price, i think.

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I don't know if you need Hulu & Netflix, I'm ok with just having Netflix cause I hook up the computer too (on mine it was a VGA to RCA cable that's like 20 bucks). Hulu is nice because you can watch new shows but not all of them. Netflix is nice because it has a lot more stuff but there is definitely a lot of overlap.

We also have an antenna. If you got your TV after the digital conversion you can get a digital antenna and then you can get a lot of channels free. I get all the networks, plus a music channel, weather, and 5 PBS channels over the air. If you have an older tv you need a digital converter.

yeah, we canceled our hulu+ account. we only have the antenna and netflix, and the occasional season of TV purchased from itunes.

(p.s. check your netflix account. they (silently?) switched the streaming+1 DVD option to be 2 separate charges. we just canceled the DVD option, so we're only streaming now. i thought there was uproar and they decided against splitting them i guess they reneged. i wonder how long we were paying the extra charge to have a DVD sit on our console for weeks at a time.)

::edit:: i am pretty sure we had a roku box at one point, but i think it got damaged somehow. now we just have cables running along the wall from the TV and under the couch, so when we need to watch something from the compy, we just plug it directly in. (as for netflix, we watch it through either the xbox or the ps3. lately it's been the ps3.)

yeah, we canceled our hulu+ account. we only have the antenna and netflix, and the occasional season of TV purchased from itunes.

(p.s. check your netflix account. they (silently?) switched the streaming+1 DVD option to be 2 separate charges. we just canceled the DVD option, so we're only streaming now. i thought there was uproar and they decided against splitting them i guess they reneged. i wonder how long we were paying the extra charge to have a DVD sit on our console for weeks at a time.)

::edit:: i am pretty sure we had a roku box at one point, but i think it got damaged somehow. now we just have cables running along the wall from the TV and under the couch, so when we need to watch something from the compy, we just plug it directly in. (as for netflix, we watch it through either the xbox or the ps3. lately it's been the ps3.)

The decided not to split Netflix into two separate services, but unfortunately, still the extra charge. We're just doing streaming, too. I realized we took forever to watch a DVD, so it didn't make sense to keep paying for them.

Hulu plus is good for current seasons of TV, on certain channels, because you can watch the entire season. I think they offer a free trial, so maybe just try it out and see if you like it enough to keep paying.

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I am interested in a Roku, as well. So, there are free channels that automatically come with? I hope they apply to Canada as well, although I don't really see why they would sell the Roku here if they don't. Also, does anyone kn9ow if Hulu is available, or as much content available, in Canada? I know I used to have the Canada Netflix, and I must say , it kinda sucked.

(p.s. check your netflix account. they (silently?) switched the streaming+1 DVD option to be 2 separate charges. we just canceled the DVD option, so we're only streaming now. i thought there was uproar and they decided against splitting them i guess they reneged. i wonder how long we were paying the extra charge to have a DVD sit on our console for weeks at a time.)

Totally not silent. They emailed all their customers well in advance of the change, and it exploded in the media before it even went into effect.

And they decided against splitting Netflix into two different companies, one offering streaming and the other shipping DVDs. They never said they were going to take back the decision to charge separately for streaming vs DVD.

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My father-in-law has a Roku. It has Angry Birds on it. Any platform that comes with birds for you to boing fwhip is good.

And also there's amazon video and pandora and some other shiitake.

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Yeh I had a Netflix dvd account and cancelled it when they split it out. At that time I had no way to stream and we werent watching the dvd's for weeks at a time. So we dropped it. We dont have a gaming system either and dont want one.

I think im gonna do this with a hulu plus account. Now I just have to figure out which internet providers are in my area other than Comcast.

I am looking online and it seems that my only choices are Verizon DSL + a home phone line or Comcast. Clear for home isn't available in my town either. We don't have a home phone right now and don't want one. But the verizon dsl + phone is only 45 bucks a month. Do you think dsl can handle the streaming?

Comcast economy internet is available for about 50 bucks a month. It is only 3mb. The verizon internet says it is 3.1 to 7 mb.

We watch Hulu+ (I put this account on hold for the summer since there isn't much new tv), Netflix, and Amazon Instant on our PS3. We would pay for internet either way, but even if you include that bill it still works out cheaper for us (and you don't really need all three). Also, they make most bluray players compatible with all these instant viewing options now (double check which services you want with compatibility beforehand). So, you could even skip the Roku and go straight for a player, too.

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If I were brave enough I would just say screw it and cancel my cable without any back up. This whole thing is giving me a headache and all I really want is to be able to selectively choose which channels I want and pay for those. But of course it doesn't work that way!

Just give me HBO, Showtime, and handful of regular channels and I am good to go!

We don't have a blueray player either, so I'd have to buy one of those. And I don't have an hd tv. I'm kind of behind in the times when it comes to this.

Well, if you've got the funds you could just by a new smart TV. I have this one that I got on sale for $500. It has a digital antennae (I bought an external one to pick up more channels) and it also has Netflix and Amazon built in. On Amazon you can by seasons of HBO and showtime shows as they are airing.

really? but you're so close to me. we get an advertisement from them in the mail easily every week or 2. (if only they'd put their effort into widening their service area instead of spending for all that advertisement.)we still use comcast for internet. we canceled cable last year, and we're just accepting that we won't see most shows until they reach netflix. no biggie. we're finally watching breaking bad, so that's good. (1 more season and then we'll be caught up. but then that encourages us to buy the current season. heh.) there are tons of other stuff to watch though. no need to stay current with most stuff.

from time to time grocery stores offer this deal where you buy $50 in itunes gift cards and then a $10 catalina prints out, so that's essentially 20% off shows. not bad.

It is crazy! I used to have fios when I lived in Marlton. And Bellmawr has it but my town which is like 2 towns over doesn't! Go figure. I just got a second job, so I'm not going to be home to watch tv anymore anyway.

I'm resurrecting this thread because I have a Roku and I'm wondering if anyone's discovered any awesome free/private Roku channels that they want to share?

Don't know if the OP ended up getting one, but I love ours. We never had a cable TV subscription to begin with though, so for us Roku is like magic. We'd have high speed internet in any case, so when you add up the cost of the various subscription services we use it's still cheaper than what we'd pay to add on cable TV. We can pick up local stations with an antenna so we can still watch the news and stuff too.

Anyway, on the topic of free Roku channels that I think are of interest:

-I really like some of the content on Chow's channel. I'm not particularly interested in the numerous demos on how to cook meat, but they have this series called "Obsessives" which is about people who are really into one particular aspect of food culture. Like there was one about a guy who curated a seed library, a guy who owns a massive specialty soda store, stuff like that. They're interesting.-There's a channel called Asian Crush which has free-with-ads Asian films (lots of Korean and Japanese content) or you can pay to rent them without ads. Along similar lines, there's another channel called Crunchyroll, which seems to be mostly anime, but has some films and TV dramas for free. Supposedly there is more stuff if you pay to subscribe, but I don't, so I can't really comment on that.-NASA channel! Streaming! For free! Wheeeeeee!

We replaced cable with a Roku about 4 years ago. We love it. I guess we'd be considered early adopters, since when we bought ours you could only order it online directly through Roku, and Netflix and Amazon were really the only things on it.

Plex is a cool new channel that lets you stream things that ordinarily wouldn't go to a mobile device or TV by streaming it through your PC and pushing it to the Roku. I have trouble with it sometimes but my husband doesn't seem to.